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Letters to my parents in Britain
from Nova Scotia during 1942 and 1943
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I left
Edgehill School in the summer of 1941 and in the autumn entered Dalhousie
University to take a pre-medical course for two years. I stayed on to take
another one to take first year medicine where I was the only girl in the
class of boys, the number now escapes me. I was merely 16 years old as a
freshette and apart from Pat I knew no one there. Pat was staying with the
Principal of the University and his wife, Dr and Mrs Stanley in Oxford
Street. I lived in the residence, Sheriff Hall for the length of time I was
studying at Dalhousie. I worked hard and had an active and enjoyable social
life. I had a very happy time in the Canadian university and was sorry to
leave. I remained in Canada until 1944.
Unfortunately I have few memories of my stay in Halifax so many years ago.
My mother kept some of my letters and I have to rely on this for reference.
I do remember one night being woken by the dreadful noise of explosives and
it was quite frightening. One of the girls came running down the corridor
shouting, " The Germans are here! The Germans are here!" I believe an
ammunition ship had caught fire and the navy were targeting it with gunfire
intending to sink the ship. Halifax had a terrible and tragic explosion in
1917 and the memories of it were still very much uppermost in the minds of
the inhabitants, even in the early forties. During the First World War a
French ship Mont-Blanc left to join a convoy in Bedford Basin. She
was loaded with a highly explosive mixture. A Norwegian vessel, the Imo,
after a series of ill-judged manoeuvres, struck the Mont-Blanc on the
bow. The ship blew up and 1,630 homes were completely destroyed, many by
fires which quickly spread following the explosion; 12,000 houses were
damaged; 6,000 people were left without shelter. Hardly a pane of glass in
Halifax and Dartmouth was left intact. The death toll was just over 1,900.
I also
remember for many nights seeing smoke rising from a burning oil tanker,
which had been torpedo off the Basin and the flames could be seen on the
horizon for at least a week. It was a grim reminder, despite the fact that
Halifax seemed so peaceful, that we were at war
Just
before I returned home I recollect seeing the headlines in Barrington Street
that the First World War Prime Minister, David Lloyd had died. I remembered
that my late uncle, Gareth Jones had worked for him.
I spent
nearly all my vacations at the home of Dr and Mrs Bell. She must have
thought that I was completely undomesticated and had to teach me a great
deal about house keeping. I am sure I left the wood stove in the kitchen out
many times, because I did not look after it. I well remember how Dr Bell
liked his bacon cooking - well done and crisp. I remember the butler’s
pantry, though of course, there was no butler - it was a kind of lift, but I
have no idea from where it came. The house, Drumnaha, was a chalet type with
a beautiful view of the back harbour. It was quite high up and from it was a
small winding path, through a small wood, which ran down to the waters edge.
There, from the wharf, Richenda, I and others dived and swam. Life was very
pleasant and Mrs Bell was very good and very tolerant of us.
My
account of the remaining time in Nova Scotia has to be taken from a few
letters that my mother kept.
******
6.4.42
c/o Mrs Bell Chester Nova Scotia.
I may
take a job during the summer time with Mrs Bell’s brother-in-law, Dr Hugh
Bell (I believe Dr Bell was injured at Vimy Ridge) who is a professor in
Botany at Dal. I don’t exactly know what I shall have to do, but I know I
shall have to gather flowers and ferns. I believe the rest is perhaps making
slides, tending cultures etc.. I shall stay with a sister of Mrs Bell who is
also a Mrs Bell.
Last
Monday I was up in Halifax. First we drove to Dartmouth on the ferry. The
Harbour was quite interesting, but I shan’t say anything about that. Of
course the enemy will know though. ... We had a most interesting drive to
Eastern Passage where Dr Winthrop Bell has work in connection with aircraft
production. We saw aeroplanes, but these had nothing to do with the factory.
We crossed the ferry again in Halifax proper and had lunch.
P.S. Mrs
Bell says that Mummy isn’t to worry any more about money. … As I am quite
happy and safe here you haven’t anything to worry about.
15.6 42
c/o Mrs Bell.
As you
see I am again with Mrs Winthrop Bell. I had to give up my job which was
extremely interesting, because there was no where for me to stay in Halifax.
The lady I was going to stay with couldn’t have me. At first she put it off
for week. I had to stay at the Y.W.C.A.. It was awfully expensive and I did
not like it very much.
I might
have to work next year, as there is not enough money. Don’t you think I
could come home war or no war? Most Canadians think the war will last
yet-a-while. I feel if I stopped my college course for a while I would never
go back again and even if you couldn’t afford to send me to college I would
much prefer to go to work at home. I don’t want to live in a boarding house.
… On top of that I will have been out here three years.
I have
been swimming three times in one week. We had quite a heat wave last week
for to five days, but today it is just like autumn.
Every
now and then we are beginning to feel a shortage, of course, of sugar, tea
and coffee which are rationed voluntarily and gas (petrol) by coupons and
sometimes eggs, butter and meat are scarce and are far between. I expect it
is because being near the shipment port. They are most likely to be exported
than food nearer in land. Rubber of course is short too.
24.6.42
. Mrs Bell
I am
quite tired today, because I was in bathing and then rowed out to some
islands to look for flat stones for a path for Mrs Woodroofe. I did not find
many, but it was the first time I have rowed this year, and had a really
proper swim.
Richenda,
the sister of Dora and Fabian is coming to stay. It is not much fun going
swimming by oneself, and the weather up to now has been really nice enough
for swimming. The water has been cold because of the icebergs off the coast.
Last
night Mrs Bell was asked up to a celebration that the Norwegians had –
Mid-Summer eve. We were given coffee and Norwegian waffles and some funny
things cooked on a gridiron. They lit some bonfires on the shore. In Norway,
they burn these on every hill and sometimes put a barrel of tar on top. We
did not have a barrel of tar last night. [The Norwegian yacht Oswego was
purported to have sailed out of Oslo with the Norwegian gold on board when
Norway was invaded. It was moored in Chester and we young people had the
chance to sail on it.]
Mrs Bell
took an old Norwegian captain and his wife to collect lady’s slippers, a
kind of orchid yesterday afternoon. It was a bit late for these flowers, but
we found some. I thought they were very pretty, pink and one yellow. Mrs
Bell found an awfully interesting plant, the pitcher plant. The leaves are
cup shape and have liquid inside them that enables then to catch insects.
The flower is very unusual too. I hardly know how to describe it - it is
rather like a lantern.
I got
Richenda’s bicycle out from the garage today, so I should get some exercise
on that. This morning I helped Mrs Bell weed the front drive. It was quite
hot work. It reminded me of the times when I had to hoe the path at 88, Lee
Road. Wasn’t I thankful when you put concrete down.
28.6.42
Mrs Bell
Another
Sunday seems to be here again and I have settled down to write my usual
letter… Renée has arrived in Chester again. …Today I went down to dinner
with the Woodroofes as usual. After dinner Renée and I went, hoping for a
swim and a row in Mrs Woodroofe’s rowboat. Unfortunately a convalescent
sailor had borrowed the rowboat and the tide was too far out to go in.
Some new
Canadian stamps come out on July 1st. I shall have to post myself
a set.
I wonder
how the battle in Egypt will turn out. I hate listening to the news
now-a-days and only barely read the newspaper. What did you think of
Churchill coming over to this side?
Dora and
Fabian’s Mother spoke over the radio to them and they didn’t hear her. You’d
think the children would be let know somehow or other.
Jacq. is
spending her holiday in Cape Breton. (A fairly large Island) Betty and
Averil will be with Miss Laurie at Oakfield and I believe are coming to
Chester in a fortnight for the day in about a fortnight’s time. Both of them
are going to Toronto University next term.
4.7.42
Mrs Bell
This
afternoon Chenda and I went for a sail with an English girl and the people
she is staying. She came out on the same ship as I did. It was quite rough
and beyond the first lot of islands and we got quite splashed. Still I think
it is far more fun when it is rough.
Yesterday the tide was high in the afternoon. We had a marvellous bathe,
diving and swimming off the wharf, the water was wonderfully warm and I
could have stayed in for hours. We sunbathed for a while and then came up
and had tea. Mrs Bell had someone in. Talking of tea, it is to be rationed.
We may either have 1oz of tea or 4oz of coffee in the future per week.
Pat
arrived down last Saturday. Chenda and I went to the Woodroofes to see her
and found everyone there including Renée making sandwiches for the Yacht
Club tea. So we pitched in and to make a few and then to eat a few. We took
the plates of sandwiches down to the clubhouse and then watched the
free-for-all race come in. We popped in and had sandwiches, sugarless
cookies and punch instead of tea.
Last
Friday Mrs Bell took the car to Bridgewater to have the back mudguard
painted. We walked around the town. … We drove back to Chester via Lunenburg
and then out to the second peninsula which is situated somewhere in Mahone
Bay. The Bells have some land there so we went to see if there were any
apples on the apple trees. We climbed some trees and got enough to make
applesauce.
Last
Thursday Mrs Bell, the children, Chenda and I went to Little Gooseberry to
pick raspberries. We took our lunch and spent most of the day there
returning with 8 full bags of raspberries.
Mrs Bell
has to go away to see some friends of hers who are sick for a day or two, so
Chenda and I are going to be billeted with friends in Chester. I am going to
some people called the Anguses.
29.7.42
Mrs Bell
On
Saturday we went to fetch Dr Bell from his work. I suppose I shall have to
be careful what I say here. Mrs Bell has just made Chenda rewrite hers for
giving a too graphic description. I’ll just say that I went round the inside
of a Douglas Bomber and saw the positions of all the crew. It is amazing how
compact they are. I’d hate to be a gunner though. I’ll tell you more about
it after the war. Probably it will be stale by then. …
On
Monday we took Dr Bell back again. We were in the ferry so that we could see
the harbour. I wonder how often each day German spies cross it.
18.10.42
Shirreff Hall, Halifax.
The
iniation wasn’t a success at all. Some of the girls went and wrecked the
freshettes room. After they had done this they squabbled about it.
On
Friday we had a terrific Chemistry Lab. We were there four hours and didn’t
get half what we were set done. The experiment wasn’t hard, but it as the
preparing for it that was hard, tedious and fiddly. Every time we heated the
oil, but we had to wait for it to cool down before we could repeat the
experiment.
I went
to see Mrs Hugh Bell yesterday morning. Her son seems to have had a touch of
pneumonia again.
I went
to the Pi Beta Phi rushing party on Thursday. I should like to have joined,
because it would have been something to remember when I go home, but it
would cost too much and there would not be a branch in London.
There
was quite a tragic sinking here of the ferryboat between Newfoundland and
Nova Scotia. The boat was unconvoyed. There are quite a number of girls from
Newfoundland here who only a few weeks ago travelled that way.
18.12.42. The train
Here I
am on the train to Montreal. The exams finished yesterday. I have hardly had
time to settle down. I am travelling with two other girls and sharing a
compartment. We have been in the train since 7.30 and it is now 10 o’clock
having travelled about 60 miles. We don’t arrive until tomorrow morning. And
at the rate we are going it won’t be until tomorrow afternoon.
Six
letters arrived from you on Monday. I was so excited that I ran all the way
back to get them … Your parcel arrived yesterday.
I am off
the train now. We arrived in Montreal five hours late. You should have seen
the train it was all covered with icicles. We were supposed to be Montreal
at half past seven. At half past seven we had stopped and we could see light
and a river. So we leaped out of bed and got quickly dressed thinking we had
arrived just outside Montreal and only had a few minutes to go. We looked
out of the window and found it was Quebec and that across the river was the
Heights of Abraham.. We did not get into Montreal until nearly one o’clock.
21.2.42
Sherriff Hall
I had a
letter from the lady I stayed with in Montreal enclosing some snaps when we
were up in the Laurentians. I will enclose one or two. The Laurentians are a
range of Mountains. I believe mummy asked this question.
Last
Thursday I had a quiz in Zoology on the cat bones and the muscles of the
rabbit - it was quite stiff, and I have no idea how my friend and I did.
Actually we got on quite well with the Professor – far better than we ever
have before. He is usually quite awe-inspiring and wears a green eyeshade
which he would cover his face when he leans forward. When he did it always
seemed to us that he was laughing at something we said.
We had a
dance the other night in the gym. Everyone was dressed up as characters from
the Funny papers such as Mammy Yokum and little Abner.
8.3.43
Shirreff Hall
This is
Munro day.
Saturday
afternoon I collected for the Red Cross. I wore a white overall and white
cap like a maid’s afternoon one with a red cross on it. I had to stand in
the vestibule of one of the theatre and after a while it was extremely cold.
I didn’t stand long without a coat. Lots of people gave. It was amazing how
many sailors and little children gave I am going to sell tags next Saturday.
The Red Cross are putting on a campaign for the whole month.
I am
going to sell gratis that is lucky dips on Munro day that is this afternoon.
It is for the Aid to Russia fund. We are going to charge 10 cent and 25 cent
gratis. There is an awful lot of junk jewellery among them but there are a
few nice things.
The
budget came in last week. Postage stamps are going up to 4 cents. I wrote a
lot of letters to friends last week. I don’t relish the idea of an extra
cent …
The
shops are getting very empty. There are lots of things that can’t be had
now. I shouldn’t be surprised if more things were rationed before the end of
the summer. The shops are rationed so we are rationed indirectly.
Unfortunately people are buying everything up. I tried everywhere to get
some wool last week and the shops only had the most awful browns and blacks.
I am afraid this ink is weak. I put about 1/3 of the bottle of water in the
inkpot which was absolutely dry.
I have
managed to get through to the C.P.R. to send to the permit office. I hope
they will consider it.
13.3 43
Dalhousie University.
I went
to dinner with Laurie Bissett . Some of the Bissetts were going to down to
Windsor to Edgehill. The little girl did not want to go. And I was asked. I
hadn’t been down there for a year and a half at least so I jumped at the
chance. It was rather nice driving down. Spring seems to be trying to come.
Yesterday it did today it is quite cold. I dashed over to King’s house where
all the English girls are as soon as I got to Edgehill. I saw Miss Briggs
and Miss Marshall. They were all carefully mending. It seems that a great
many girls down in the States are going home. After talking to them for a
while I went upstairs to see the English girls who were having Sunday
afternoon rest period. Everything was so quiet. As soon as I got up there I
caused a great commotion. Everyone came rushing into the room where I was
whether there were any rules or regulations or not. they though,t I had
changed. They thought they were getting quite Canadian and told me new
Canadian expressions which I had nearly forgotten about. It was funny to see
all the younger Roedean girls who had come out with me now in the 5th
and 6th forms.
Did I
tell you about Munro Day. Well in the afternoon, had so much fun selling the
gratis or lucky dips. Most of the dips were jewellery or scent. Most of the
customers seemed to be boys and they had great fun wearing the junk. There
was one little sergeant in the G.O.T.C. who did a great deal of canvassing.
Every five minutes he would come back with some other customer. Then he
tossed a coin to see who would pay for the next round of dips. I believe we
got 27 dollars in all.
Please
wait until I come home to decide which college to go to. I don’t exactly
want to go to Royal Free.[Hospital] If am going into medicine it means I
have to compete with men probably, and therefore I should know how to mix
with them. I’ll try and do well in my exams so that they will have to let me
into some college probably, after they have accepted everyone else. So
please do not make your plans definite till I come home. I have decided
everything for myself for the last few years and I should have some say in
where I ma going to college After all it is I who am going into for
medicine. What are daddy’s reasons for wanting me to go to the Royal Free?
It may
be a shock to you when I come home, but I am not the little girl with braids
that came out here three years ago. I know you must still picture me really
as that because how could you picture anything else I didn’t try to grow
older for my age or anything. It just came naturally. How could it be helped
when I had to pretty well live on my own and yet depend on others?
Well
only a few months and I shall be home.
21/3/43
Sherriff Hall
Well, I
finally got my exit permit and passport. The exit permit is valid till the
middle of June sometime. I can get it extended from then. I have heard
nothing abut my passage from the C.P.R., but I have just written to them to
see if there was a possibility of getting a passage in April. I know nothing
about such arrangements. I hope they give me warning before I leave.
Please
write and tell me of anything you need and I’ll try and get it. I don’t
guarantee to though, because everyone seems to be hoarding around here. The
shops are quite empty. I guess there’ll be a lot of things rationed before
the end of the year. The States have really gone into it whole-heartedly and
have rationed many more things than Canada.
I am
enclosing a passport photo which I had taken at the beginning of this term.
My hair has been cut since then. You said you needed it fro Med School.
Couldn’t you enter me for University College, London. I’d like to go there.
I went
to see the show "In Which We Serve" with pat. It was quite good for a
propaganda film. Noel Coward was in it. The States are putting out numerous
such films, third rate, at that, about their navy, where the U.S. sailors
always win out in the end. Impossible tales and not so true to life as "In
Which We Serve".
Mrs
Bell’s sister, Mrs Ralph Bell died last week. She had been ill for quite
some time I believe.
Nothing
much seems to happen now-a-days. We’ve come to the time where we eat, work,
sleep and then begin all over again.
I read
Churchill’s speech today. I didn’t realise he was quite so ill. It was
certainly kept very dark. Is there such a fever for post war plans in
England, as there seems to be from out here? Churchill’s speech seems to be
about that and other post war plans. Some people think that the peace
conference should be held in Canada, because it ahs been able to look on the
war as a by-stander and yet part of the British Empire.
27/3/43
Shirreff Hall
I don’t
think this will be a very long letter this week. It is only three weeks off
till exams and everyone has become conscious of this.
Last
Tuesday I went to lunch with Misses Constance and Norah Bell. You may have
heard me mention them when I was down in Chester. I had to dash away soon
after lunch because of a Zoology class at half past two. We are doing the
nervous system, partly because they are so small and partly because they are
so like muscles. We cut through the brachial plexus and are having a
dreadful time now trying to find the nerves from it. I dissected the brain
last week, but so far have not studied it. Before the end of the month I
have to dissect the dogfish brain.
I told
you I got my passport and my exit didn’t I. What a lot of trouble I had
getting it. It is valid until the end of June. I haven’t heard anything from
the C.P.R. about a passage, but I have written to them to let me know about
particulars. I don’t know whether they got that release of indemnity form I
sent you yet. I don’t think much of the Halifax C.P.R, office. They promised
to help me get this and that and I had to do it all myself. They said they
would get me a passport form and I would still be waiting for one if I
hadn’t sent up for one myself.
Pat is
coming till next year, because she thinks it is better to break her course
after her second year. She hopes to get into 4th year medicine
when she comes home. As I said before I want to get into second year
medicine. And I don’t see why I should not be able to. I’ve been at college
for two years now and that should count for one year.
4.4.42
Sherriff Hall
I wrote
to the C.P.R. telling them I had my exit permit and passport and all I got
was three green forms. I have so many different coloured forms it isn’t even
funny. I thought I had finished filling them in too. This was priority for
East bound passage.
… I
think I’ll have to leave the decision to you if you don’t want me to come
home this spring or summer. This spring should be the safest time because
the fogs and the icebergs will be off the coast.
Please
write and tell me what you think I should do because if you do not want me
to come home yet. I better start making some plans for the summer and next
year. We over here don’t think the war will be over for a year or two.
Perhaps you’d better write to Mrs Bell about it if you are worried.
I have
been studying Psychology all day and I am sick of it. I have been studying
memory, imagination, thought and intelligence. Yesterday I studied logic and
I am supposed to know what induction is now. …
Yesterday afternoon I went to see "Commanders Strike at Dawn". You may have
read the book by that name. It was very popular out here. I enjoyed the show
very much Parts of it were filmed in Vancouver and the scenery was
wonderful. "Random Harvest" is being shown at the Capital Theatre this week…
All good shows would come round at exam time.
9/5/43
Mrs Bell
There is
not much news to talk about. I mean local news. The news about Tunis and
Bizerte is very good - enough to keep you cheerful and talking for some
days.
I helped
Mrs Bell clean the kitchen, sitting room and bedrooms this week. Most of it
was washing woodwork.
I hope
you are all well. How is Ianto? [Gareth’s dog] I am longing to see you all,
but may be the war won’t be so long after all and then I can come home
safely. I am planning to go back to Dal. Next year. I may get a job, as a
zoology instructor and get 250 dollars. It will be jolly good experience
even though it would be hard work.
******
There
are no more letters to recall my time in Canada. I had entered 1st
year medicine at Dalhousie and left Canada on my birthday June 6th,1944.
It was also D. Day. The train took me to Montreal. I remember the train to
New York went through Buffalo. From the station in New York a bus took me
and others to the pier where we boarded the New Zealand ship, S.S. Rangitata,
the sister ship to the ship, the S.S. Rangitiki that brought the ashes of
Gareth home from China to his birthplace of Barry, South Wales. The journey
back seemed endless. I remember we saw whales on the port side of the ship.
We were in a convoy of about 50 ships, I think and arranged 50 miles across.
[I could be wrong here] Destroyers were continuously circulating round the
convoy and our ship was in the centre of all these ships. We thought there
was some excitement during the voyage, but then it was this was only
hearsay.
I
arrived at Liverpool hoping to go home to London, but there was a message
for me to go direct to my grandparents in Barry. I have vivid memories of
being stranded on Crewe station waiting for a train and feeling rather
despondent having reached Britain safely, but no one was there to greet me.
But the doodlebugs had started, and London was being targeted. So I was back
at last in Britain, but not at my home.
The
summer was spent in Barry and in the autumn I entered St Andrews University,
though I was to go to Dundee where some of the medical students started
their course, and where all the medical students completed it to get their
degree. We were about 60 men and women in my year and I started in the
second year. St Andrews had been the only university to accommodate me and
accept my previous studies in Canada. I live in the residence Airlie Hall
with a number of other girls.
I
suppose I suffered from cultural shock. Everything was so drab after my
happy experience in Canada. Food was dull and we were on rationing. I can
remember I enjoyed the Scottish dish of stovies - potatoes and onions slowly
cooked in some butter and water. It was dreadfully cold in the residence in
winter. We had no central heating. I think I had two bags of coal to heat my
room each week and it was difficult to keep warm while one studied. I
certainly missed my time in Canada and when I was there, I seemed so
confident. Somehow on my return to Britain and to my home my shyness
recurred.
iI
remember my graduation day in St Andrews. My proud parents Dr John and Mrs
Eirian Lewis came as did my grandparents Major and Mrs Edgar Jones. General
Montgomery received an Honorary Degree from the University.
As I
look back over those years in Canada I realise what an important influence
it has had on my life. I have been most fortunate and accomplished a great
deal. My life has been extremely fulfilled.
I
married in 1950 six years after my return from North America and 2 years
after my graduation and I have been lucky enough to have four sons. Sadly my
husband died in 1973, but I have achieved much since then. I was senior
partner in general practice in Bramcote, Nottingham. It was a great
privilege to be party to peoples lives and to see the whole spectrum of life
from birth to death. After my husband’s death I took up Scuba Diving and
have logged well over 900 dives. The hobby has taken me to the four corners
of the earth and I have been most fortunate to dive in pristine areas and I
have seen the most marvellous sights below the surface of the sea. It
introduced me to both underwater archaeology and medicine. Since retiring I
have written two books about my uncle Gareth Jones which has made me delve
in to history of which I knew nothing. In its own way even to master the
computer and make my own website is a small achievement.
I have
been most fortunate in all I have done.
I speak
for all the evacuees to Canada when I say that we are eternally grateful to
all Canadians for their kindness and generosity and in particular to Dr and
Mrs Winthrop Bell for their kindness in opening up their home to us, the
evacuee children from War time Britain.
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